A Surgeon With AIDS-Reply

Abstract

In Reply.— My editorial concluded that it is acceptably safe, from the stand-point of HIV transmission risk, for HIV-infected surgeons to perform most operations. Dr Fulghum raises two of the most important corollary issues: What are the disclosure obligations of the HIV-infected surgeon? What are the implications of the physical and mental impairment that HIV infection ultimately produces? These issues are best considered in the context of other potential disclosure obligations and accommodations to physician impairment. The implications of HIV infection in health care workers are analyzed thoroughly in a position paper developed by the Association for Practitioners in Infection Control and the Society of Hospital Epidemiologists of America. 1 There are many situations that might lead patients to switch physicians but that produce no or virtually no increased risk and are not ordinarily disclosed to patients. Examples include past drug use, recent physical or mental illness, or a